Mary Stuart

England in 1587: Two women stand at the pinnacle of power in a world otherwise dominated by men. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, alleged murderer of her husband, pretender to the English royal throne and leader of the Catholic opposition, meets her counterpart Elizabeth I. The Queen of England rules her country with an iron hand as the symbol of the virtuous regent and protector of the Anglican Church. Everything about these two women cries out for conflict. The political flashpoint is only fanned further by the personal conflicts between the two rivals. A failed assassination attempt on Elizabeth leads to Mary, who ends up on the scaffold for treason.

Two centuries later, in 1800, the poet Friedrich Schiller escalated the situation between the two female characters in his tragedy to a greater degree than the historical sources attest, creating a gripping drama between politics, rivalry and femininity that has lost none of its significance today. Having arrived in the present day, ballet director Bridget Breiner takes Schiller's original as an opportunity to place precisely these themes at the center of her ballet about the rival regents. With works by the British composer Benjamin Britten and the contemporary Scottish composer James MacMillan, English and Scottish forces of sound also come together on a musical level to make the drama tangible.

The large-scale interdisciplinary ballet project, in which Breiner also incorporates the BADISCHEN STAATSOPERNCHOR both scenically and musically, had to be postponed several times due to the pandemic and is now finally being premiered in her fourth season as ballet director of the STAATSBALLETT KARLSRUHE.